Expanding Your Writing With the 5Ws + H
Posted: August 13, 2026 | Author: Haley Lefevre | Read Time: 5 minutes
One of the most persistent challenges in academic writing is underdevelopment, wherein a paragraph makes a claim but does not fully explain or support it. Maybe you have received feedback before, like “expand on this idea” or “what does this mean?”—even though you feel like you stated your claim clearly. You know what your main claim is; you said it. How can that not be enough? The solution does not always require more research or a better argument. Sometimes it just requires asking better questions.
This is where the 5Ws + H come in. A framework borrowed from journalism, the 5Ws + H (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?) prompt you to look at your own writing the way a skeptical reader would. Those five simple questions can help to examine a claim from multiple angles, ensuring that readers receive the context and detail they need to follow a point.
What Is the 5Ws + H Framework?
Originally used to structure news reporting, the 5Ws + H is a set of six foundational questions that guide information gathering and analysis (Strunk & White, 2000; Scanlan, 2003). When applied to academic writing, these questions serve as a revision lens: you hold each claim or piece of evidence up to the list and ask which questions remain unanswered for your reader. The six questions are:
- Who: Which people, groups, institutions, or actors are involved or affected?
- What: What exactly happened, was found, or is being argued? What are the key terms or concepts?
- When: In what time period or under what temporal conditions does this apply?
- Where: In what context, setting, discipline, or geographic location does this occur?
- Why: What are the causes, motivations, or theoretical reasons behind this?
- How: By what process, mechanism, or method did this come about or get demonstrated?
Of course, not every question will apply to every sentence, and that is okay. The goal is not to answer all six mechanically but rather to notice which ones your draft has skipped and whether those gaps leave your reader without helpful information.
Before and After: Applying the 5Ws + H
Consider the following hypothetical underdeveloped passage about workplace burnout:
Before:
"Burnout has been studied extensively. It is a serious problem that affects workers and organizations alike."
This sentence tells us what the topic is, but leaves nearly every other question unanswered. Running it through the 5Ws + H reveals the gaps:
- Who is affected? (Which workers? Which industries?)
- When did research on this begin, and how has it evolved?
- Where (in what organizational or cultural contexts) is it most prevalent?
- Why does burnout occur, according to the literature?
- How has it been measured or defined across studies?
Addressing even a few of these yields a far more informative passage:
After:
“Burnout has been studied extensively, and for good reason. Since Maslach and Jackson (1981) introduced their foundational burnout inventory, researchers across healthcare, education, and technology sectors have documented it as a syndrome of chronic workplace stress that leaves employees feeling emotionally exhausted, increasingly detached from their roles, and less confident in their performance. It is a serious problem: studies consistently find that burnout intensifies when workers face high demands with little autonomy or institutional support (Leiter & Maslach, 2016), making it not only a personal health concern but an organizational and economic one.”
The revised version answers who (employees in specific sectors), when (since the 1980s, reflected in contemporary research), why (demand-control imbalance), and how (via measurable dimensions)—without unnecessarily padding the prose.
How to Use This Strategy in Your Own Writing
The 5Ws + H works best as a revision tool rather than a drafting checklist. Here is a suggested workflow:
- Draft first. Write your paragraph without stopping to interrogate every line.
Identify your central claim. Underline or highlight the sentence that carries the most argumentative weight. - Run the six questions. Ask each question against that claim and note which answers are missing from the passage.
- Prioritize gaps that affect comprehension. If a reader cannot understand what you mean or how you know it, those gaps take priority over contextual details.
- Revise and integrate. Try to weave the missing information into your prose smoothly rather than appending it as afterthought sentences.
A Note of Disciplinary Variation
It is worth noting that different academic disciplines weigh the 5Ws + H differently. Empirical research articles in the social and natural sciences tend to foreground how (methodology) and who (participants or sample), while humanities writing often prioritizes why (interpretation and argument). Legal writing places heavy emphasis on where (jurisdiction and precedent) and when (timing and sequence).
As you apply this framework, consult your field’s conventions, and when in doubt, look at published work in your target journal or consult your advisor. With your field’s conventions in mind, you can calibrate which questions matter the most in your context (Swales & Feak, 2012).
If you would like extra assistance applying the 5Ws + H, the Graduate Writing Center provides hands-on, personalized writing services to the graduate students of SUU. For feedback from one of the GWC’s trained consultants, book an appointment now!
References
Leiter, M. P., & Maslach, C. (2016). Burnout. In G. Fink (Ed.), Stress: Concepts, cognition, emotion, and behavior (pp. 351–357). Academic Press.
Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. E. (1981). The measurement of experienced burnout. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2(2), 99–113.
Scanlan, C. (2003). Reporting and writing: Basics for the 21st century. Oxford University Press.
Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (2000). The elements of style (4th ed.). Longman.
Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2012). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills (3rd ed.). University of Michigan Press.
